COMBINING MULTIPLE RESISTORS TO IMPROVE TOLERANCE Combining Multiple Resistors to Bm prove Tolerance 1 of the frst things you lean when studying introductory electronics theory (sce Figure) ne sesulting total seasurement. In this article me Combine je Resistors? il ain assumptions First the Conclusion 0 read on ora minimtm, re aso ¢ ecesting problem ll start wit Series Resistor Combinationor RT ie N times each resistor value Ri. The variance result is mor Parallel Resistor Combination The pra eomblnetion cases more deat to analy eresting Fora Ri resisorsin perl the wel knthird and higher order terme in equation (@ coats Ce1 8 mies ofp for parallel 1, mace This i not the enc af the stony hosceves era Experimental Results Sy Bees stein’ theory of gravity, am 2) Use the statistical tec2 of (almost) any statistic mited ample he parallel combination ccc) Susu cor fs Ens Bane ea) Resistor Measurement Fi prey Peary UnIuaZU LG Dread Standard Eror of Bootstrap Pen ca ere Ere Fer Per rte roel ced eedgure ¢ Bootstrap (simulation) Histogram for Parallel of 501K Ress The really interesting data that we ean extract here though is th < error tor the estimate, or the Yanance'tor these 10000 resistor paral com>inations whichis iste as “Standard Estor ot Bootstrap" in his was calculated using small program { wrote for Excel VBA. Compare that ‘against the predicted value trom equation ( ‘The error is remarkably small about 05%) showing that our original formula is stl ge coxlmation even for ths ‘not so-novmal resistance stsibution! Conclusions Even though the wen theory and p i above show goed cor ce few words of advice are in order First is that [fly expect dif: rmantifachiers to have quite ditteseat quality standards and that might atfes the resales you get Even in Keeping with the same manutachurer,theve so punrantee that there wil be dtterences trom natch te batch It your design is eitca, allow some margin on top of the calculations above, However, the rest clesrly show that there are some statistical gains to be had ty combining multiple resistors and it's» handy technique to keep in mind if you ever need it. ‘this type ot ‘deceptively simple problem that stradle the border between Engineering and Mathematies t hope you enjoyed it UPDATE: As noted by some readers in the eevislog, some manufactur + seem to introduce a sort of asin into the slightly below the nominal. It seems to be the casein my measurements where the average came-up at 99725 Ohm and not 1000 Ob, Presumably this accounts for temperature coetficients and aging tending to*inczease* the resistor value. Keep in mind that the way I defined “Tolerance” above ‘his “bases” average value and not relative tothe naminal value. f you know the average (biased vale) for a given set of sesetors then the tole sve to this average can ne estimated by avising by a9: as shown above. Ths analysis ees not imply that the tolerance relative to the nominal value nll aprove by combining resistors! ‘omments, questions, suggestions? You cen reach me at: contact (at sign) paulorenato (dt) com